What will be the future of parking downtown?
During a recent Clinton City Council meeting, Mayor Scott Burton discussed the idea of expandion of parking capacity in downtown Clinton.
“I hope we do have a parking issue because, man, it’s going to be exciting to have that much excitement and energy going on downtown,” he said at the April 22 council meeting, in response to citizen comments.
“And I think we have a pretty good plan to bring more parking spaces in there when that’s needed,” Burton said.
One major development downtown and a subject of two citizens’ concerns about parking was the Daugherty Furniture building, recently converted into an apartment space called Daugherty Lofts at 307 North Main St.
City Manager Roger Houck told The Courier News that he is not worried about the parking there, and believes that the Daugherty Lofts will use the public parking designed for the downtown business district that has been in existence since the mid-1960s.
Burton said parking will continue to be open to the public on both sides of the Daugherty building. He added however, that he hoped to restripe this public parking area to add at least 20 spaces.
He said the city might, if needed, add more parking along some of the city’s roads, possibly even making some of them one way for that purpose.
Houck said a contractor hired by Daugherty Lofts damaged a small portion of the Commerce Street Parking Lot, but plans to repair it.